Attacks on the rise in India’s Orissa state

Everything, it seems, is growing in India. Bucking global trends, India’s media are expanding rapidly, reaching into the hinterlands following a wave of
development and growing literacy. Industrial development is expanding, with explosive
growth of mining and natural resource extraction. In Orissa state, historically
poor and restive, these two trends are colliding, producing a spike in media
attacks, according to a new report by journalist Geeta Seshu.

The exhaustive
analysis published on The Hoot, a media issues website, is based on
firsthand reporting from every corner of Orissa state. It concludes that journalists
seeking to document the region’s industrial expansion have been singled out for
attack. There have been 12 physical attacks recorded in 2010, and journalists
told Seshu they feared reporting on allegations of government corruption.

One reason journalists feel vulnerable is that many are
isolated. The national media outlets which have expanded their presence in
Orissa employ local stringers who are expected to sell advertisements to
support their reporting. “It is the stringers – in the field, closest to the
scene of action in their district – who become the targets of local powers.
They have no status, no documentation or identity proof of their role as
journalists.”

Neither state
officials nor the media have done much to protect these stringers, who
bear the brunt of the violence and intimidation. “The lack of a strong and
united journalist organization has facilitated the rampant attacks on the
media,” the report concludes.

Joel Simon is the executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists. He has written widely on media issues, contributing to Slate, Columbia Journalism Review, The New York Review of Books, World Policy Journal, Asahi Shimbun, and The Times of India. He has led numerous international missions to advance press freedom. His book, The New Censorship: Inside the Global Battle for Media Freedom, will be released November 11, 2014. Follow him on Twitter @Joelcpj. His public GPG encryption key can be found here.